Understanding Services Marketing

Services Marketing Interactive Approach Understanding Services Marketing True-False Questions Ans: T 1. T F Compared to physical goods, services are the dominant economic activity in developed countries around the world. Ans: T 2. T F A service is defined as a performance. Ans: F 3. T F Services marketing is identical to goods marketing. Ans: T 4. T F Distinguishing service and physical goods along a continuum from intangible dominant services to tangible dominant physical goods is a good way to differentiate services marketing from goods marketing. Ans: T 5. T F The proportion of tangibles to intangibles in a product determines whether it is a good or a service. Ans: F 6. T F It is not possible for services to have tangible characteristics. Ans: F 7. T F When distinguishing services marketing and physical goods marketing, marketers are encouraged to think of services and physical goods as an either-or dichotomy. Ans: T 8. T F Supplementary services augment the tangible good. Ans: T 9. T F Services are now proposed as the dominant logic in marketing. Ans: F 10. T F Services marketing is not relevant to physical goods manufacturers. Ans: F 11. T F Services do not typically rely on physical goods for their performance. Ans: T 12. T F A service cannot be seen, touched, or held. Ans: T 13. T F For many services, the customers are considered co-producers of the service. Ans: F 14. T F Defective services can easily be corrected before they reach the customer. Ans: F 15. T F It is easy to standardize service quality. Ans: F 16. T F Like physical goods, services can be inventoried. Ans: F 17. T F Services involve the transfer of ownership to the customer. Ans: F 18. T F All services do not vary in the degree to which they possess the characteristics that distinguish services from physical goods. Ans: F 19. T F There is one best way to classify services. Ans: T 20. T F Interactive marketing is where the organization proves its commitment to serving customers. Multiple-Choice Questions Ans: a 21. The most easily recognizable service characteristic is a. intangibility b. simultaneity c. heterogeneity d. perishability e. All of these service characteristics are easily recognizable. Ans: c 22. Which of the following conditions does NOT typically set services apart from physical goods? a. Intangibility b. Simultaneity c. Cost d. Heterogeneity e. Perishability Ans: e 23. Which of the following statements does NOT describe a fundamental characteristic of a core service? a. A service lacks a physical form. b. The customer and service provider often interact to produce the service. c. It is difficult to standardize the quality of a service performance. d. A service only exists at the time of its production. e. External environmental forces heavily influence a service organization. Ans: e 24. Which of the following statements about services is FALSE? a. It is often not possible for customers to examine a service before it is performed. b. Customers often help create the service that they are consuming. c. The opportunity to generate revenue from a service performance disappears when some of the service provider’s production capacity is not used during the service encounter. d. There is little chance to correct a faulty service before it reaches the customer. e. Customers often tend to feel less risk when purchasing a service compared to a physical good. Ans: a 25. Which of the following statements comparing services with physical goods is FALSE? a. Services may have tangible characteristics, whereas physical goods do not have any intangible characteristics. b. Service organizations often require much closer contact with customers than is commonly found in manufacturing organizations. c. It is often more difficult to standardize the quality of a service performance than it is to standardize the manufacturing of physical goods. d. The marketing of services and physical goods can be greatly influenced by external environmental forces. e. All of these comparisons between services and goods are false. Ans: a 26. Which of the following comparisons between physical goods marketing and services marketing is FALSE? a. In contrast to physical goods marketing, the intangibility of services forces services marketers to be more creative in order to distinguish their products from competitors. b. In contrast to physical goods marketing, service marketers must manage the timing of demand rather than simply building demand for their products. c. In contrast to physical goods marketing, anything that a services marker does in relation to the customer becomes a marketing activity. d. All of the comparisons between physical goods marketing and services marketing are false. e. All of the comparisons between physical goods marketing and services marketing are true. Ans: b 27. Which of the following is NOT typically considered a supplementary service? a. A medical service b. An after-sales service agreement c. A music concert d. All of these services are typically considered supplementary services. e. None of these services is typically considered a supplementary service. Ans: e 28. Which of the following approaches have not been used as a basis for classifying services? a. The full range of specific service activities b. The types of customers that are served c. The type of service recipient and the nature of the service act d. The linkages between organizations, providers, and customers. e. All of the listed approaches have been used as a basis for classifying services. Ans: c 29. According to the Services Marketing Triangle, the __________ form of marketing __________ promises in services marketing. a. Internal marketing, makes b. External marketing, enables c. Interactive marketing, keeps d. Internal marketing, keeps e. External marketing, keeps Completion Questions Deed, Performance, or Effort Simultaneity Intangible Variability Co-producer Perishability Rental/Access Services Supplementary Business to business service organizations Consumer service organizations Services Marketing Triangle Interactive marketing Ans: Deed, Performance, or Effort Page: 7 30. A service is a(n) _____________. Ans: Intangible Page: 9 31. A service is ___________ when it lacks physical form. Ans: Co-producer Page: 10 32. The services customer is often an important ____________ of the completed service. Ans: Simultaneity Page: 10 33. The ___________ of production and consumption makes it difficult to separate a service from the service provider. Ans: Variability Page: 11 34. The ____________ characteristic of the service makes it difficult to standardize the quality of a service performance. Ans: Perishability Page: 11 35. The ____________ characteristic of a service means that services only exist at the time of their production. Ans: Rental/Access Page: 11-12 36. The _______________ characteristic of a service means that services provide temporary possession or access instead of ownership. Ans: Consumer service organizations Page: 13-14 37. _____________ provide services to customers who are purchasing for their own personal needs. Ans: Business to business service organizations Page: 14 38. _____________ provide services to customers who are purchasing on behalf of their organizations. Ans: Services Page: 9-10 39. Intangible dominant products are also called __________. Ans: Supplementary Page: 40. ______________ services are those services that are added to a physical product to enhance its appeal to potential customers. Ans: Services Marketing Triangle Page: 15-16 41. The _______________ is based on three key components: organizations, employees, and customers. Ans: Interactive marketing Page: 15-16 42. _______________ is where the organization proves its commitment to serving customers. Essay Questions 43. Why is it important to study services marketing? 44. You teach at a local university that does not offer a services marketing course. After attending a services marketing conference and reviewing Fisk, Grove, and John’s Services Marketing 4e, you decided to request that the course be taught. After hearing your request, your department chair asked, “Why is it important to study services marketing?” Prepare a convincing response to the question. 45. Services are described as possessing five key characteristics. Choose a service, and describe it in terms of these five characteristics. 46. How would you respond to the statement “All services are basically the same”? 47. Can services and physical goods be easily classified into separate categories (a goods category and a services category)? Please explain. 48. As a class exercise, students were given a list of products and asked to classify the products as goods or services. You overhear one of your classmates saying, “This is going to be easy!” How would you respond to this student? 49. Is services marketing really different from the marketing of physical goods? Explain your answer. 50. Your service organization is hiring a marketing person. One of the candidates has several years of experience marketing a physical good. During your interview, this candidate states that there is no difference between the marketing of a service and the marketing of a physical good. How would you respond to the candidate? 51. What is the fundamental difference between core services and supplemental services? 52. During a class exercise, students were asked to classify a list of services as either a core service or a supplemental service. To simplify the classification process, the instructor asked students to develop a decision rule for determining whether a service would be classified as a core service or as a supplemental service. What would your decision rule be? 53. Describe the Marketing Service Triangle, its components, and the links between the components. 54. Describe how the forms of services marketing outlined in the Services Marketing Triangle relate to the role of promises in services marketing.